GimbalAxis

I want MSFS to be a stable, reliable, enjoyable, profitable platform, for the long haul. I will just say this to anyone tempted by the pre-order: I will never, ever pre-order software from Microsoft or Asobo ever again. Microsoft is again going for short profit over long profit. You only get 1 chance to make a first impression - and last November, Microsoft released MSFS 2024 in a barely functional state that did not live up to half of the marketing video. A year later, MSFS 2024 is still not very stable or reliable on PC, let alone Xbox (even though there is some improvement in Sim Update 4 Beta testing, WASM, VRAM, and CTD issues still require leaving most of the default planes in the hangar and live traffic off.) So how they expect anything but disappointment on Playstation before it works for existing users on the native PC platform is a mystery to me. I wish them luck. I do want the platform to be a success - but letting the marketing department dictate when things are ready, as opposed to the software engineers, is repeating a costly mistake, and burning any goodwill that the user base has left, in my opinion. It seems Microsoft only cares about the initial bump in numbers of people trying it, and doesn't really care about the numbers of people who then abandon it because it simply doesn't work as advertised or as expected.

I can confirm that the functionality of saving and reading of settings is buggy - which only adds to the confusion of how to save settings for a specific plane. Even outside of Controls, the General settings, and settings for a particular flight, are not being saved, or read, reliably. A few examples: In Settings > Assistances, if you click "Set Defaults", it instead sets all to "ON", and changes the label to "Custom" instead of "Defaults". Also, if you try to change the time of day of your flight, it will revert to Live time a minute later. And in the Controls, sometimes you'll make changes, save them, go back and the changes aren't saved. I think there is a fundamental flaw in Asobo's new database system for handling all settings - perhaps because it is linked to a "cloud save" which can itself be unreliable.

There are a lot of factors, but from my brief testing of MSFS 2024 on a new PC I can say the following with confidence: - First, the context: The whole thing about MSFS 2024 is LOD - Level of Detail. In 2020, when you saw scenery, a ground vehicle, jetway, building or plane, it was drawn in full. Now, each object has different levels of detail based on distance, and on your settings. The idea is that when something is far away, it should be lower resolution, not take up so much resources, allowing more objects and visual detail. That's a great theory, but it's still a work in progress, and the fact is that some default scenery, airports, and planes are still very buggy, and they seem to still be working on the LOD curves. It's getting better, but it's still a problem. - There also seems to be some memory management issues, somewhere in the relationship between RAM, VRAM, and swap file. I'm pretty sure this is a focus of bug fixing at the moment in SU4 Beta testing. - On my new PC, in beta testing, I've found a few things that have a significantly high impact on performance. Turn these down or off and test: - Texture Resolution (lower it) - Parked Aircraft Quantity (lower it, or off) - Aircraft Traffic Quantity (lower it, or off) - For your flight, turn OFF Live Traffic to test - for me this makes the difference. - Try a flight without opening the EFB, just to see if you get better performance. On some flights, just opening it can cause a repeating, pulse/stutter that repeats every 1-2 seconds and doesn't go away until you quit. Try those, and see if any help.

Well, I've been banned on the MSFS forum, I think, I'm not sure. I took a break from MSFS (on Xbox) after the launch of 2024 (because it was so bad), and decided to use the time to build a PC. My rationale was that MSFS 2024 would likely get better, and if it did not, I would have the options of trying X-Plane, DCS, etc. The PC build was a challenge and rewarding. I kept up with the forums, and as MSFS 2024 is now slowly improving with the progress of Sim Updates, I decided to re-join the beta testing on my new PC, because at least then I could give constructive feedback and trade troubleshooting tips. Yesterday, in the main SU4 Discussion Thread, someone posted they had good results deleting caches, scenery indexes, and content files. I had not heard of deleting some of those, so I asked: Instantly my post was flagged by the "system" as "inappropriate or harmful". For the life of me I could not understand why, so I rephrased, and mentioned that I wasn't sure if it was a Code of Conduct violation to ask the question, but to let me know. This got me kicked out. I'm in disbelief. I'm a regular poster, I ask questions, I try to help those who ask questions (from my limited experience), and I file bug reports. I am also vocal in my criticism of some of the decisions of Jorg Neumann and Phil Spencer - however, I keep it civil and constructive, because I ultimately want MSFS and flight simulation to improve and be healthy, so we can all enjoy it. Afterwards by private message from TheSevenflyer, I was told the initial flag was by the system (so their AI bot) that my question was "off topic", and when I rephrased the question, that was called "not listening to staff". But I had not heard from anyone before rephrasing - only the bot. I did not intend harm, and was only asking for details about a post... what Orwellian nightmare is this? In the end, I realize I am upset because I had formed something of a shared camaraderie with other enthusiasts and bug testers, and was being cut off. However, I also realize how unhealthy I feel trying to tip-toe around the very Napoleonic and arbitrary application of the rules. I've just read this entire thread, and I will echo other's experiences with HesterMT40 - I ended up being banned by (him/her) a while back, and I wrote some letters complaining that the forum was the "official support forum" and to deny a customer access when I had simply not violated any TOS in any demonstrable way (Hester's arguments were spurious at best, just plain targeting at worst), they let me back on, and apparently along with other's complaints, he/she isn't there (although I'm starting to wonder). Since the beginning of September, the tone has changed, and the number of messages being "flagged" by regular, positive, contributing members has had a marked increase. It's ironic, because the sim and positive feedback is starting to improve - at least the base simulator. All of the "services" and default planes still badly need work. I think they are really starting to censor for 2 reasons: the anniversary of the launch is coming up, so there will be criticism if the sim has not improved significantly at that milestone. And also, there is a fairly credible rumour that MSFS will be launching on Playstation (or that Xbox Game Pass content will come to Playstation, and they want to, I don't know, make sure dissent is at a minimum? The MSFS forums have been a daily habit, but for my health and sanity, I have to quit - or I've been banned. Either way, sad. And I hope AVSim forums are friendly. Cheers.